Pabst Brewing Co. - G. Heileman - Stroh's - Schmidt's Light - Special Export Light

Stroh’s. “America’s Premium Brewed Beer” “Traditionally Brewed With the Finest Hops, Pure Water and Barley Malt” Pours golden with nice carbonation and an inch of white head that quickly disappears with no lacing. Golden color. This has a nice mouth-feel and a hint of malt and hops flavor with a slight nice hoppy bitterness in the finish, more than your average macro lager. Crisp and refreshing. This is a very good American macro. This is old school in a good way. Pabst Brewing owns the Stroh’s name but Pabst brews none of their own beers, they contract them out, and it is my understanding that Miller brews for them. Pabst has the best collection of classic American brews.  These Stroh's came in a 30 pack of cans from a Hy-Vee in Owatonna, MN.  I later found a six pack of bottles at Pete's Liquor Bucket in Merrilville, IN.  It is so rare to find beers like these in bottles these days.  My follow up on this beer makes it a real stand out in the cheap American macro lager category.

Stroh's Light - Pours golden in color, not nearly as pale in color as most macro lights.  There is a quarter inch of white foamy head that last marginally longer than most beers of this type.  The aroma is of some grain, the slightest hint of lager "funk", slightly sweet, yet also a touch of green apple/metallic.  The taste is a bit of grain and fresh dry corn with a slight bitter finish.  The mouth feel is biting carbonation, crisp and refreshing and dry on the finish.  Not as good as the regular, but a very good macro light lager.

Schmidt’s Light – an old G. Heileman product, now owned by Pabst and brewed by Miller, as I understand. "The Light Beer That Grew with the Great Northwest!"  This pours a very pale golden color. It has nice carbonation and mouth-feel. There is a hint of hops and a touch of sweetness in the finish. Although this is a light, it is better than Budweiser. I find most of the Pabst brands to be better than the truly huge macros of Anheuser-Busch, Coors and Miller. They have the same good carbonation, mouth-feel and crisp refreshing effect, but with more flavor. Are they German lagers? Hell no, but they have more flavor than the macro-macros. The problem with Anheuser-Busch is that they have good mouthfeel and carbonation but absolutely no flavor. They are zeros. Which I believe is what they want, by having no flavor, they offend no taste buds. But they don’t excite any taste buds either.

Special Export Light – also an old G. Heilman product, now owned by Pabst. Very similar to the Schmidt’s Light, extremely carbonated and perhaps just a touch more flavor than the Schmidt’s light.